One week later.

Ninth Elder Mo Yijun, sitting in his residence in the Blue Moon Sect, sensed something wrong. Faster than the regular human eye could catch, he rushed out of his room. A few moments later, he appeared at the top of a cliff outcropping that was thousands of meters above the ground below.

In front of him stood a youth with a sharp jawline, wearing a modest, though slightly dirty, purple robe. Fastened on his back was a spear with a black shaft that had, coiled around it, a dragon forged out of copper.

If Song Yi had been there he would've recognized the spear as being almost exactly the same as the one he'd seen on the pedestal before. The only difference was that this one was clearly of inferior quality. Despite that, however, it looked incredibly domineering.

In addition to the spear, the youth had an ordinary buckler fastened to his arm. The buckler was covered in gashes and marks. It had clearly seen dozens of battles.

The youth, of course, was Third Prince Zhang Bo. Behind him was the weak-looking boy, Little Li, who had accompanied the Prince through the second exam.

Little Li looked much worse for wear than Prince Zhang, his face dirtied and his robe torn. However, despite still looking physically weak, the look in his eyes had undergone a qualitative change. He was only thirteen, but as of that moment, he was a man.

Both of them grinned as they looked at the astonished Ninth Elder.

"You two…" Elder Mo never thought that this batch of recruits would put him at such a loss for words.

In the entire history of his time acting as proctor of this exam, nobody had ever finished the second exam in a week. The previous record time was seventeen days.

It seemed that the Third Prince had surpassed the expectations that Elder Mo had held. As for Little Li, Elder Mo couldn't help but acknowledge his progress as well. He could tell that this boy must have also contributed greatly to their record time.

"Congratulations on passing the second exam."

Meanwhile, still in the caves, Song Yi and Su Bai were wracked with exhaustion. Ever since the fight with that imp, they had encountered an increasing amount of monsters in all shapes and sizes.

The injury to Song Yi's leg had been painful, but superficial. After bandaging it to stop the bleeding, there were no issues. In addition to that, Su Bai had woken up from her depleted state after resting for a few hours.

As it turned out, using the gloves would cause her to lose all the energy in her body, forcing her to rest. Thus, over the following week, she had avoided using it unless absolutely necessary.

The onslaught was bitter, and had taken its toll. The pair were both at their limit. They found it difficult even to rest, as one of them always had to stay awake on the lookout. This had proved vital, as, on more than one occasion, they had been attacked while one of them slept. Had the other not been awake, they would have both been slaughtered in their sleep.

As for the monarch, Song Yi could sense his presence growing stronger. He would awaken soon.

While he had, in some ways, enjoyed a week without constant oversight, judgement, and pestering, he knew that, to lower the risk of incident for the duration of the examination, the old geezer's help would be instrumental.

Another six days passed in that fashion. The youthful smiles and giggles that had accompanied their journey up the ravine had long since disappeared, replaced with aching bones and wary eyes.

The silver lining to the ordeal, though, was that both of them had become far more accustomed to battle. While Song Yi hadn't unlocked any secrets of his obsidian axe, he'd become proficient with using it as one would a regular battleaxe. His Blazing Desert Leg Art had improved as well, especially since he had been reading the manual while he was on lookout duty.

Su Bai had improved as well. The art from her tome was a palm art that relied on a series of rapid strikes. If performed correctly, each strike would increase in power exponentially. The increase was minute at first, but after a dozen strikes, it became clearly noticeable.

Eventually, their journey brought them to an enclosed circular area. They had seen a few such areas during the examination, but this one was different.

Different because, at the other end of the room was an iron door, thirty meters high and ten meters wide. To the right of the door was a small wooden sign that read:

Beyond this door is the final room. Should you enter, there will be no return. This is your final warning and final chance to quit the examination. Should you decide to quit, you may wait out the remainder of the allotted time in this room. In here, you will not be disturbed.

Song Yi and Su Bai exchanged a look, then both laid down near the door, falling asleep almost instantly.

They had not needed to speak to know what each other were thinking.

They had come this far. They would not turn back.

Despite that, exhaustion seeped into every mote of their being at the moment. Without rest, to continue would be foolish.

Four days later, they stood in the middle of the open space.

Just as the sign had said, they were not disturbed for the duration of their stay.

On this day, it was decided that they would challenge the final room. After waking up, they'd begun some light sparring with each other.

Song Yi was continually forced back by Su Bai's rapid combo attacks. Every so often he would manage to grab onto one of her arms, but she managed to slip out of his grasp every time.

It was clear from the beginning who had the initiative. Of course, Song Yi wasn't using the obsidian axe, which had become an integral part of his combat prowess.

As for the Blazing Desert Leg Technique, he tried to use it, but Su Bai would redouble her assault every time he began.

She was too sharp, and he couldn't find an opportunity.

They stopped before they used too much energy, but the victor was clear as day.

Su Bai clasped her hands and bowed. "You fought well."

Her conduct was impeccable, but the image was ruined when she stuck her tongue out at him playfully.

Song Yi gave her a rueful smile in return as he jokingly put his hand on the Dragonbone hilt of the axe at his hip.

In response, Su Bai scratched her nose slowly, making an obvious show of the gloves on her hands.

Both of them laughed.

"Shall we go, then?" she said.

Song Yi wanted to wait a bit longer. He could feel the monarch's presence growing ever stronger. Despite that, he didn't know exactly when the old man would wake up, and neither he nor Su Bai could tell how many days it had been since they entered the caves.

In any event, he was confident thanks to Su Bai's gloves that they'd be able to handle whatever was behind the door.

"Let's."

Without delay, they walked up and pushed on the giant door.

As though sensing their touch, the door opened effortlessly, allowing them passage. Once they entered, it closed behind them.

Song Yi had eaten one of his glow fruits in advance, causing his hands to light up, and Su Bai still had her glow frog bag strapped to her waist. But as it turned out, neither was needed. In this 'final room,' they could see moonlight streaming in through a large hole in one of the walls.

The hole was circular, but jagged, clearly not made intentionally. It almost looked as though some large body had smashed into it, leaving part of the wall to crumble.

In fact, that was exactly what had happened. As for what could've caused such a thing, they discovered that asleep in the middle of the room.

What sat there, curled up, was a giant, yellow, scaled salamander. It must have weighed easily 2000 kg. Every time it exhaled, a gust of air blew against the duo's robes.

Both of their faces dropped when they saw the beast.

Their trump card wouldn't be effective here.

Su Bai tiptoed over to Song Yi until he could smell her perfume. Regarding how she could still think about smelling good given their circumstances, he was astonished, but that was the least of his concerns at the moment.

"We should try to sneak around it. If we don't have to fight it, it'd be a miracle," she whispered in his ear. "We can use those boulders to hide, as well."

He nodded in affirmation.

Careful not to make noise, the two walked around the edge of the room, timing their steps with the salamander's exhaling.

Gradually, Su Bai began to get ahead of Song Yi. It wasn't intentional, just a matter of her being slightly faster and more nimble. As it didn't affect the amount of sound they made, neither of them paid it much heed.

Finally, Su Bai reached the other side of the room, where there was a regular-sized metal door. Pulling the door open ever so gently, she slipped through, leaving it ajar for Song Yi.

Continuing to take care not to make any excessive noise, Song Yi stepped around various human bones that could be found scattered around the floor.

Soon, he was no more than two dozen paces away from the door. He paused to take a deep breath.

It was at that horrible, unfortunate timing that a BOOM could be heard from somewhere beneath them, shaking the entire floor.

Song Yi's head snapped towards the salamander behind him, only to see two dark black eyes staring back.

ROAAAAAAAAAR!!!

The cave shook, sending rocks and dust falling from the ceiling as the bestial cry, dozens of times more terrifying than the one they had heard a lifetime ago at the base of the cliff, shattered the air.

The beast raced across the floor with terrifying speed, causing Song Yi to dodge out of the way as it slammed the metal door shut with its tail.

Now, there was 2000 kg of terrifying between Song Yi and escape. His heart sank.

On the outside, Su Bai pounded the door with her fists until they were bloody, executing her palm art to the point of 50 strikes, the final strike hitting with 344 kg of force.1 That kind of impact was more than enough to shatter every bone in her arms. But thanks to her proper execution of the art, she didn't suffer any permanent damage, only some intense shooting pains.

Despite that, however, the door didn't so much as creak. It could only be opened from the inside.

"Song Yi! SONG YI!"

The Third Prince and Little Li had felt the ground shake, and come out to investigate. They'd previously been housed in a cabin that was better furnished than the one they'd stayed in at the base of the cliff.

When they came out and they heard Su Bai's shouting and banging on the door, they rushed over.

"I'm not sure how you made it out, but you should be grateful you're alive." The Prince put his hand on Su Bai's shoulder. "If he's in there with whatever caused that shaking alone, he's probably already dead."

Her head whipped around. "Don't you DARE touch me!"

The usually cocky Prince took a step back, removing his hand. Her bloodshot eyes made even him feel nervous, and he unconsciously moved a hand to the shaft of his spear.

She cast a hateful look at the Prince, who grimaced in turn, before turning back to pound on the door.

Surprisingly, Little Li chose that moment to speak.

"Miss, please. It won't help to hurt yourself. You can only have faith in him now."

Su Bai took a step back. She knew that the boy was right, but she couldn't stop the terrible feeling in her stomach. Even the pain in her arms and hands couldn't compare to that gut-wrenching sensation.

When she thought about how he had saved her life and acquired the two items for them, she found hope. But during the days following that incident, Song Yi had shown no sign of that capability since. She shut her eyes as prayed that he still had some kind of ace up his sleeve.

Incidentally, Song Yi was also hoping that the ace up his sleeve would wake the hell up soon. The moment the salamander had placed itself between him and the door, he knew his only hope laid in the monarch.

If Su Bai were still in the room, they might have been able to take it down together. Without her, though, he knew he didn't stand a chance. He smiled a rueful smile when he heard her cries from the other side of the door.

"Sorry, Bai'er... Well, at least you made it."

He grabbed the obsidian axe from his waist, holding it in one hand as he used the other to point right at the salamander.

"Let's go."

He immediately rushed forward, just barely managing to dodge as the salamander shot its long tongue out.

When he was ten meters away, the colossal beast swiped at Song Yi with its thick tail.

This time, Song Yi knew he couldn't dodge. There was nowhere for him to go.

Resolved to take the hit, he raised the battleaxe above his head with both hands and viciously swung down, slicing through the tough scales and into the soft flesh beneath.

Just as he landed his attack, the tail continued in its path, batting Song Yi aside. Through sheer determination, he managed to dislodge the axe, now covered in yellow blood, and hold onto it, but as his back smashed into a nearby boulder...

Crack!

Two of his ribs broke.

The salamander roared with rage at being injured. It drew back its head and making a noise that sounded like a crackling bonfire.

Activating every muscle in his body, Song Yi barely managed to drag himself behind the boulder before a ball of flame blasted into it where he'd just been sitting. The flames were unbearably hot, and his clothes began to smoke even though he wasn't directly hit. Frantically, he kept patting his cloak to put out spots that were beginning to burn.

Song Yi was panting, still winded from the earlier tail-smack and broken ribs, when he heard the beast's lumbering footsteps coming closer.

"Wang Yanjing!" he shouted internally. "Wake UP you old fogey!"

There was no response.

Song Yi didn't try to run, he knew that another fire breath like that last one would be certain death if he didn't have cover. At the same time, he also couldn't defend from the salamander's physical attacks.

That left him with one option: Attack.

He immediately dropped into a low stance. If there were ever a time to use the Blazing Desert Kick, it was now.

Song Yi spun around twice, generating centrifugal force. Using his free foot, he stomped into the ground with all the force he could muster, pushing himself into the air. Spinning one more time, even faster than before, he extended his leg and delivered a sharp downward kick to the salamander's snout.

Caught off guard, the salamander did nothing to avoid the blow.

PAH!

The beast was sent reeling backwards, clutching its snout in pain with one if its webbed front feet. It sent another swipe of its tail towards Song Yi, but this time it was too distracted by the pain, and there was a window of escape for Song Yi, who managed to dodge beneath.

Abandoning all ideas of continuing the fight, Song Yi broke into a mad dash for the closed door at the back of the room, which was no longer obstructed by the salamander's body.

40 paces.

25 paces.

At 15 paces, he heard that crackling sound again.

At 5 paces, he heard a WHOOSH, and threw himself as hard as he could to the right, just in time to avoid the giant ball of fire that displaced the air his body had just occupied.

The hair on the back of his head could be smelled burning, though it wasn't aflame.

The salamander came charging towards him once more, but now he was closer to the door. The metal was red-hot from the fireball, and would definitely burn his hand, but he would make it out before the salamander reached him.

Right at that moment, stopping him in his tracks, a voice rang out.

"I'm gone for a few days, and when I get back you're fighting this oversized garden snake?"

If it weren't for the life-threatening panic, Song Yi would've had a mind to be irked at the comment. Under these circumstances, though, he ignored it and reached for the red-hot door handle.

"Alright, brat, calm down. As congratulations for keeping your dumb ass alive, I'm going to show you how to use this axe. No need to burn your hand there, we're having ourselves salamander steak tonight."

Against all better judgement and common sense that Song Yi had built up over the years, he forced himself to stop.

It hurt him to stop. He knew Su Bai was on the other side of the door, mere meters away, praying for his safe escape. He didn't want to betray her wishes like this, but even more so, there was another urge within him.

The last few days fighting alongside Su Bai had left him with a new itch that he couldn't scratch. Something else he'd never felt before.

He found that, recently, he'd wanted nothing more than to get stronger.

And this was a chance to do exactly that.

Resigning himself to his stupid decision, Song Yi replied.

"Alright then, show me."